its proper limits. This may be placed in the front as a perpetual
cause of bad intonation and loss of pitch. This straining is usually
accompanied with loud singing, but boys who have formed this bad habit
will not at once sustain the pitch if told to sing softly. Their voices,
under these circumstances, will at first prove weak and husky, and will
flatten as much with soft singing as they did with loud. A slow process
of voice training can alone set them right. But as boys' voices last so
short a time this treatment is not worth the trouble. Boys who have
fallen into thoroughly bad habits should therefore be dismissed, and a
fresh selection made.

Some choirmasters imagine that practice with the organ or the pianoforte
will cure flattening and uncertainty. This, however, is not the case.
Probably the effort to keep up the pitch which singers make when
unaccompanied keeps their minds and throats tense and active, while the
consciousness that the instrument is supporting them makes them
careless. An instrument reveals loss of pitch, but does not cure it. No
good choirmaster rehearses with the organ. A pianoforte, lightly
touched, is commonly used, but the teacher should frequently leave his
seat, and accustom the choir to go on alone.

It is a mistake to suppose that boys flatten because the music is too
high. This is very rarely the case. They are more likely to flatten
because it is too low. Boys attack high notes with greater ease than
women.

Nervousness will cause a singer who has sung in perfect tune at home to
sing sharp or flat at a concert. But nervousness does not greatly
trouble boys.

Carelessness will sometimes cause these troubles. The way to cure this
is to increase the interest of the rehearsal, to make the boys feel
bright, happy, and comfortable.

To mark the breathing places is a good way of preventing flattening,
which is often caused by exhausted lungs.

Singing is a mental as well as a physical act, and unless the boy has a
clear conception in his mind of the sound of the note he wants, the
intonation will be uncertain. Here comes in the Tonic Sol-fa system with
its "Mental Effects," which give a recognisable character to each note
of the scale, and guide the voice and ear.

Bad voice production, throaty and rigid, must always go with flattening
and wavering pitch. The act of singing should be without effort; the
muscles of head, neck, and throat should be relaxed. A boy inclined to
these faults should be told to smile while singing. The tone will then
become natural.

But in spite of all these hints, flattening occurs from time to time in
the best trained choirs, and seems to defy the skill of the
choirmaster. All agree that a half empty church, a cold church, an
ill-ventilated church promotes flattening, and it may be added that
certain chants and tunes so hover about the region of the break that
they invite false intonation.

Mr. H. A. Donald, headmaster of the Upton Cross Board School, tells me
that he has not much flattening, but that when it comes it seems to be
beyond control. The discipline of his school is excellent, but on a
given day there will come, as it were, a mood over the boys which makes
it impossible for them, try as they will, to avoid sinking. Sometimes,
but not always, this will happen in warm weather. He has more than once
abandoned the singing lesson, and taken up some other study because of
it. One day recently the boys were most attentive, and their vexation
and disappointment with the flattening was evident. Another day it does
not trouble them in the least. This is a school where voice-training is
exceptionally well looked after.

Several correspondents have favoured me with experience on this point,
and I now proceed to quote their letters. Mr. W. W. Pearson, of Elmham,
writes:--

"Ordinary flat singing is the result of want of practice and experience.
Chronic flat singing is incurable, as it is due to